Maritime workers take 48-hour strike

Up to 70 Bunbury workers for maritime logistics company POAGS started a 48-hour strike on Friday after coming to a stalemate in workplace agreement negotiations.

Maritime Union of Australia WA organiser Danny Cain said the union had been negotiating with POAGS after their enterprise bargaining agreement expired at the end of June.

‘‘Nationally there’s been over 20 meetings and locally there’s been approximately five,’’ Mr Cain said.

‘‘We’ve just come to an impasse.’’

‘‘There was a meeting scheduled for Thursday, but the company cancelled it and are now refusing to meet us so this is a last resort really.’’

Workers at the Inner Harbour sought approval for the stop work action from Fair Work Australiaand continued with their strike on the weekend.

Mr Cain said the union was seeking a wage increase that would bring workers at Bunbury’s port into line with wages at other WA ports.

‘‘Bunbury is probably one of the lowest paid ports in the country,’’ Mr Cain said.

‘‘They are well below the likes of Port Hedland and Fremantle and the eastern States.

‘‘I’d say that they’re 12 or 13 per cent behind the wages of Fremantle.’’

A spokesman for POAGS said the union demands are ‘‘excessive and unsustainable’’.

‘‘The MUA’s demands amount to an increase in labour costs at Bunbury of 63 per cent over the life of the three year agreement,’’ the spokesman said.

‘‘Clearly no company could agree to this and remain viable."

POAGS has offered an increase above CPI of 4 per cent for each of the three years.

The spokesman said the company remained ready to meetwith the union again and offered to meet them on Thursday if they called off their strike.

‘‘The union chose to go ahead with the strike action and therefore there was no meeting scheduled,’’ the spokesman said.

A spokeswoman for the Bunbury Port Authority said the port did not suffer because of the action.